Barak panhandles coalition to reluctant party members
'If Kadima ends up in opposition, we will be a fifth wheel,' says Labor chairman during faction meeting. To Livni: Netanyahu gave Arabs more than all of us combined
Labor Chairman Ehud Barak attempted to convince party members Monday to refrain from automatically dismissing the option of participating in a Likud-led government. He said a decision by Kadima to sit in the opposition would render the party "a fifth wheel".
Outgoing Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer criticized party members for their rowdy dilemma on whether to join Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
"I've been in this party for 25 years and I have never seen such a thing. At this rate we'll reach four mandates," he said.
He stressed his lack of support for Labor's participation in the government. "Yitzhak Rabin's party cannot sit with Marzel and Ben-Gvir's party," he said, referring to the extreme right-wing Jewish National Front Party.
"In addition, we are hearing more every day about Lieberman's new demands and I am sure they will all be fulfilled. I'm sure that if Netanyahu really wanted to care for the nation as he says, he would understand that there is one solution only – a coalition made of Kadima, Labor, Likud, and maybe Shas," Ben-Eliezer said.
He went on to compare Labor unfavorably to Kadima. "In the Kadima faction everyone wants to sit in the government, but no one dares open their mouth. The chairwoman says her piece and that is that. On the inside there are arguments, but on the outside there is one mouthpiece," he said.
The minister added that the party members were only a few of the thousands who had given the party their votes. "We are not lords of the land, we are servants of a party," he said. "I remember times when Rabin would say to insubordinate MKs: 'If you don't like it, there's the door'. Barak should do that as well, if there are people who don't belong here."
During an impromptu meeting with Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi at the Knesset later in the day, Barak said Netanyahu "is more flexible than people think" with regards to the peace process, adding that he "gave (the Arabs) more than all of us put together."
Last week Livni cut her meeting with Netanyahu short after the latter refused to include the "two states for two people solution" in his government's basic guidelines.
